PATRIARCH
by lwill
Summary: The Charmed One's are about to see what Chris left behind in the future when he returned to the past to save Wyatt. Chris however is about to find out that in the end everyone has to make a choice and for him that time is fast approaching.
1. Chapter 1

Charmed fanfiction

**Patriarch**

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'Chris'

'Chris'

'Chris where the hell are you?' yelled Piper from in the kitchen. It was morning and Piper was busy cleaning up the porridge which Wyatt had spilled on the floor. He wasn't feeling well and decided he didn't what to eat his breakfast.

'Chris get your as...'

'What' replied Chris as he cut off Piper's tirade?

'Where have you been? I have been calling you for the past five minutes'

'I was busy Piper. You know I have other things to do besides be at your beck and call 24 hours a day'

'Funny because I thought that as our whitelighter that's exactly what your job was'

'No my job is to protect Wyatt and find out who might turn him so if your not in any immediate danger I am leaving' said Chris as he began to orb out.

'Oh no you don't,' yelled piper as she made a grab for the swirling blue orbs, 'I need you to heal Wyatt. Leo's in some elder meeting and your all I've got'

'So I'm the backup, I feel so loved. Ok what's wrong with him?' asked Chris as he reformed resigned to the fact he was stuck here.

'Well he's lost his appetite and he's sniffling and... .'

'It's a cold Piper' interrupted Chris with frustration in his voice.

'Maybe but I want you to heal him. I don't like seeing him this way,' answered piper.

'Lot's of children get colds piper it's normal and actually good for them, you know it builds up the immune system. Not to mention do you understand a little thing called personal gain?'

'I don't care if its normal he's in pain and as for personal gain I would hardly call not wanting to have you child suffer an issue of personal gain,' countered Piper.

'Fine I'll heal, this time. But you can't protect Wyatt from every bug out there you know. Doing that for any kid isn't that easy.'

'Really and what would you know about raising kids, huh?' asked Piper in an offhanded manner as she held up Wyatt to be healed.

Chris paused momentarily as the statement hit him, the fact was in his time he did know about raising kids and a lot more but he couldn't tell Piper that. As he regained his composure he healed the outstretched Wyatt and orbed out.

Piper wondered what the problem was with Chris after she had mentioned kids she had seen him stall and she could have sworn that she saw sadness in his eyes. Was it what she said about kids? wondered piper but it couldn't be, Chris was a kid himself really so she couldn't imagine him having any. But as always Wyatt's cries pulled her away from her thoughts.

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The next few weeks went by pretty boringly actually only a handful of demon vanquishes to be had. Paige, in a quest for family bonding, had requested a family evening get together for dinner. Feeling a little guilty she had invited Chris to the dinner also.

To say that dinner was uncomfortable would be an understatement. Leo still not trusting Chris spent most of the night interrogating him which in turn made Chris defensive; eventually Piper reached the point where she knew she had to stop the two from igniting world war three. She was just about to say something when a loud crash was heard from the attic.

'What was that?' enquired Phoebe.

'It came from the attic,' replied Leo as he began orbing up stairs closely followed by Chris.

'Hey wait for us,' yelled piper as she grabbed hold of Paige ready to piggy back an orb upstairs.

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When the three sisters reformed in the attic they found Leo and Chris along with several new people and what seemed to be two young children.

The new arrivals were also joined by what can only be described as some ugly demons. And they were not taking any prisoners. Fire balls were flying about all over the room and the sisters had to duck to dodge a couple that were incoming. 'What the hell,' yelled phoebe?

'Phoebe fight now talk later,' cried Chris as he threw one of the demons across the room.

The attic was full of activity as the newcomers along with the sisters were throwing everything they had at the demons.

'Chris the portal, he knows the spell if he goes back to Wyatt ….,' shouted one of the dark haired girls currently holding back the demons from the two young children.

That's when Piper noticed the portal in the wall not that far from her. She also noticed that the instant Chris heard the girl he turned his head to the portal. In that moment piper was amazed, she watched as Chris rushed to the portal and began casting a spell, the exact words she could not hear. Her amazement however was not the spell but the fact that while saying it he was almost unconsciously sending demons left right and centre.

The spell took a mere few seconds to work and the portal closed, leaving only two demons left against a defensive force, of in total, 9 people.

Leo managed to vanquish one of the two but just as piper went to blow up the last one Chris shouted, 'no!'

Piper was confused but hearing something in his voice did as asked. 'Piper blow him up!' screamed Leo, but she didn't.

Instead Chris reached forward with his hand and grabbed at the air, what ever he was grabbing at only he could see. The other newcomers however knew as they looked at the last demon. There in the middle of the room the last demon was held thrashing around suspended in the air.

Chris walked forward with his hand out stretched into the middle of the room towards the demon.

'Why are you here?' Chris calmly asked.

No answer.

'Why are you here?' Chris repeated as he tightened his hold on the demons neck.

'My lord requested that his kin be brought to the citadel for their protection,' said the demon.

The dark haired girl who had been protecting the two young children suddenly made a run for the demon shouting, 'protection? The only protection we need is from him.'

She made it so far before she hit an invisible barrier stopping her from getting near the demon.

She looked over at Chris silently asking why with her eyes. Chris's reply was spoken, 'Prue the children.'

The name Prue registered with the sisters as they turned to look at the girl, who by now had returned to the two children who were huddled in the corner of the attic. Their eyes however turned back to the demon again when they heard Chris's voice.

'Your lord is beginning to irritate me. When you're coming for me you're a pain in the ass Ramón, but when you come after them you are beginning to seriously piss me off.'

'All this trouble could have been avoided Christopher if only you had accepted that he is your lord also. Instead you chose to fight him when you could have had a good life under his rule. '

'No one is meant to rule the world Ramón, especially not him. Power is not everything.'

'Power is everything. His power is unimaginable and is rivaled by no one.'

'Absolute power corrupts absolutely. No one is meant to have that much. Wyatt doesn't rule by power he rules by fear and death.'

'My master...'

'your master,' said Chris as he cut off the demons words, ' will never rule over me,' Chris moved closer as he spoke, 'and I promise I will fight to the death to make sure that he will never rule over them. We are done talking,'

And with this he flicked his wrist and everyone in the room heard the unmistakable sound of bone snapping. Chris put little effort in then throwing the demon back across the room where he suddenly burst into fires and was vanquished.

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The silence was incredible, so was the tension. Suddenly like an explosion two voices penetrated the attic.

'Uncle Chris, Uncle Chris,' shouted the two young children as they ran towards Chris and practically tackled him to the ground

'We missed you Uncle Chris, so much.'

'I missed you guys to. Are you both ok?' asked Chris.

'Yeah we're good,' replied the curly haired girl who had her arms wrapped around his neck. The other young girl was a little more subdued. Chris noticed this and turned to her as he enquired, 'how about you Promise? You ok?'

The little girl looked at him for a moment then moved forward at lightening speed burying her head in his shoulder. 'I'm ok. I was scared,' said the girl as she cried on Chris's shoulder.

'Its ok sweetie, it's ok now,' Chris said as he comforted the girl. Seeing this the other young girl copied her sister in burying her head in his shoulder.

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The sisters couldn't quite understand what they were seeing. Chris was kneeling on the floor of the attic with two young girls who were obviously identical twins, wrapped around his neck. To the side of the room stood two girls who didn't look much older than Chris along with a young man who had his arm around the girl who had been protecting the children.

The girl who was standing on her own smiled slightly as she said, 'hey Promise, Patience he's gonna need to breath soon you know.'

'Oh but what a way to go,' replied Chris as he began to stand up and disentangle him self from the two children. 'What no hug?' directed Chris towards the three oldest newcomers standing together.

This proved to be the start button as the two girls ran up to Chris just like the two children had, except with more restraint.

'Oh it is so good to see you,' said the girl who had been standing on her own. She hugged Chris and gave him a kiss on his cheek, then suddenly gave him a smack across the side of his head. 'A few weeks you said it's been nearly 3 months asshole!'

'Ok first ow! second come on penny I said a few weeks if everything went ok. Well guess what? It didn't go well' he replied.

This seemed to hit a note with the girl, who hesitated before saying,'yeah well things weren't going to well for us either.'

Chris was about to ask what she meant but was cut off by the other older girl who said sharply, 'Penny! We'll talk about all this later.' 'But...' not letting Chris finish continued, 'I said later Chris, right now … how about you give me hug.'

Chris hugged the girl tightly as if he would never let go. Oh how he had missed these people.

When Chris finally let go of Prue he turned to the young man. 'What do you think Lincoln a hug to girly?' 'Hey' hissed Penny behind him. Smiling slightly the young man replied, 'no man never' and having said that grabbed the outstretched out and pulled Chris into a manly hug.

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Aware that they had been momentarily forgotten the Charmed Ones and Leo stood to one side watching the scene unfolding in front of them not quite understanding but knowing that the names Prue, penny, promise and patience couldn't just be a coincidence.

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It was Phoebe who first noticed the younger girl, Penny looking in their direction.

'Hi my names Phoebe and yours is Penny?' she asked tentatively.

Penny didn't say a word but just continued to stare at them.

Chris saw this and realized he had to make some introductions. Stepping forward he said, 'yeah um maybe I should introduce everyone,'

'No! Really? That might be a good idea Chris,' said piper and Chris could here clearly the sarcasm, anger and frustration in her voice. He had to catch his breath, how could he explain everything without telling them the truth, but telling the truth was not an option. Noting Chris's hesitation pure stepped forward and made the introductions for him.

'um hi, my names Prudence, um,' indicating the other girl,' this is Penelope and this is my husband Lincoln. And last but not least the two who are trying to hide behind Chris are Promise and Patience.' Pure paused and then continued, 'and you are the Charmed Ones.' As an almost after thought said,' and your Leo.' Everyone noticed the tone which Prue used when mentioning Leo, cold and offhand. But right now they had other things to deal with.

Phoebe again was the first to respond. 'Well it's nice to meet you everyone. Why don't we take this downstairs to the living room where we'll be more comfortable?' Not waiting for a reply phoebe said, 'ok' and turned to go down stairs. Looking briefly at Chris and noting the nodding of his head Prue, penny and Lincoln began to follow as did the remaining charmed ones and Leo.

Chris began to move towards the attic door with the two girls when promise suddenly stopped. Chris stopped too and stopped down to her level and asked gently, 'what's wrong promise?' 'What's going to happen now Uncle Chris? When are we going home?' Chris didn't know what to say so said the only thing he could in the circumstances. 'I don't know sweetie, but I promise you that right now while in this house your aunts and I will not let anything happen to you ok?' 'Ok Uncle Chris.' 'Let's go down stairs kiddo.' And with that Chris and the two girls, who both held tightly their hands in his started to head downstairs to what Chris knew was going to be the start of a lot of questions. He just didn't know if any of the answers would satisfy the Charmed Ones


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for reading this. It will get better I promise. Don't know when I will be able to put up the next chapter, hopefully in the next few weeks. Again thank you for the reviews.

Patriarch chapter two

Chris walked into the living room with the girls to find everyone waiting. Piper, phoebe and Paige were sitting on one couch opposite Prue and penny who were sitting on the other. Leo was standing behind the charmed ones in what could only be described as a defensive posture; Lincoln on the other hand was standing behind Prue looking claim, cool, collected and frankly a little bored.

Chris waited a few moments before speaking. 'So ….. Guess there's a few things that we need to talk about huh?' not receiving any reply he continued, 'um Promise, patience why don't you go into the conservatory and play for a while, ok.' 'Ok,' said promise as she took Patiences hand and went off to play.

Turning back to the others Chris's demeanor changed from the obvious delight and joy at being with the twins to a more serious one now that they had gone

Turning to look at Prue it was her he directed his first question to, 'what happened up there Prue?'

'It was just a day trip, nothing was meant to go wrong. We thought the kids needed to get out of Tanis so we split them into groups and took each group one by one to Valhalla.'

'Valhalla? You took the kids to Valhalla? Prue what the hell!' interrupted Chris.

'Valhalla was safe Chris,' continued Prue, 'al least it was supposed to be. There were no problems with the first groups then the last one…. he must have sensed us. The next thing we know his demons are all around us. Penny managed to call the others for help but we get cut off.' Prue suddenly got up and faced Chris, 'they herded the five of us, and he planned it to end up like that. The rescue team managed to get the others back to Tanis but we didn't have a chose but to use the portal.' Looking drained and emotional Prue sat back down.

Sensing how upset Prue was Chris softened and said, 'I'm sorry Prue I shouldn't……. are you ok?'

'I don't know any more,' she answered.

Having observed the last few minutes the charmed ones were just as confused as before. 'What's Tanis?' asked Leo.

Prue looked straight at Leo. 'Tanis is our home, it's where we live.'

'I don't know of any city named Tanis.'

Prue laughed slightly and replied 'that's because it doesn't exist in this time. Tanis is underground it's……,' suddenly she turned and looked at Chris, 'did you tell them anything about our time?'

Looking a little sheepish Chris looked down and replied; 'only what they needed to know.'

'What exactly did you think they needed to know Chris?' Prue looked up at him with a questioning look and realized, 'you didn't tell them anything did you? God damn it Chris what the hell have you been doing all this time?'

'I told them exactly what they needed to know that I was here to stop someone or something from turning Wyatt they didn't, and still don't need to know anything else.'

Prue by now a little angry jumped up and turned to Chris. 'What you thought they needed to know?'

'Yes,' countered Chris, 'what they needed to know and nothing else, you know the rules Prue. As for what I've been doing, I've been doing exactly what I was supposed to do.'

Silence fall upon the group once again.

'Uncle Chris,' said a quiet voice from behind them, 'why are you shouting at aunty Prue?'

Chris and the group turned to see promise who stood in the doorway to the conservatory with patience by her side.

Penny was the one to answer, 'they don't mean to shout kiddo they're just a little emotional right now that's all, right guys?' Seeing the look on Penny's face that said you had better agree with me, both Prue and Chris nodded their agreement of Penny's statement

'Come on why I don't play with you for a little while ok.' And with this she followed the girls back to the next room.

'I am sorry Chris I didn't mean to say that.' 'Its ok,' said Chris.

'I'm sorry too but you were in the middle of answering my question,' said Leo.

Prue turned and sat down on the couch and Chris followed into Penny's seat. Realizing Prue and Chris weren't in any hurry to answer Leo, Lincoln thought he should.

'Tanis is the city that we live in. It's underground and protected by magical shield that offers us protection from attacks.' 'Attacks from who?' enquired Paige. 'Wyatt,' Lincoln simply stated.

Piper let out a gasp as did the others.

Not really wanting to believe what had just been said Leo asked another question. 'Why would Wyatt attack you or the people in this city? What about San Francisco and the other cities in the country. Why aren't you living there?'

Again it was Lincoln who addressed Leos many questions. 'San Francisco along with most other cities not only in this country but the world is in ruins. Demons control those cities that have managed to survive, all answering to Wyatt and his league of commanders. Tanis is the only free city there is. Within it resides the remaining magical beings that haven't been killed along with as many humans as we have been able to save.' Lincoln paused to give Leo and the charmed ones time to digest what he had just said. 'Those humans who have survived outside live in compounds under strict rule by Wyatt. Those who oppose him are killed.'

'Why didn't you tell us all this Chris?' asked piper, by now looking straight at Chris. He lifted his head and looked her straight in the eyes, 'would you have believed me?' the truth was probably not thought piper, but instead she didn't say anything.

'Um excuse me,' the words came from phoebe, 'I'm just curious, your names, they all begin with P. Um so you are helliwells right? I mean the four of you your our…. Children,' she enquired somewhat hesitantly. Looking at Chris, Prue answered, 'yeah the… four of us are halliwells,' turning towards Paige she amended, 'except promise and patience who are technically Halliwell-Matthews.'

Paige looked up shocked, 'the twins, their mine?' 'Technically yes,' replied Prue. 'Wow I think I need to sit down,' said Paige. Phoebe laughed briefly, 'sweetie you're already sitting.' Then something suddenly occurred to phoebe, 'if the twins are Paige's what about you and penny who are your parents?'

Turning away from Chris, Prue answered, 'technically….. My mother is you Phoebe and Penny's is piper.' 'Wow,' said Paige, 'this is information overload.'

'Then it's probably a good time for me to interrupt,' said penny as she came in from the conservatory with the girls. The girls immediately ran towards Chris who was still sitting with Prue. 'Its getting late and their both pretty tired,' continued penny, 'me two really.'

Piper who ad been sitting quietly and in a somewhat shocked state suddenly regained her composure and began to take charge again.

'Ok, of course it's getting late, um….well you guys need somewhere to stay. So, phoebe you want to bunk with Paige and the girls can have your room.' 'Ok with me,' replied phoebe. 'And Lincoln, I think we have a pull out bed for you we can put up in the attic, is that ok with you guys?' enquired piper. Receiving no reply piper asked, 'what's wrong?'

It was penny who answered, 'where's Chris staying?'

The charmed ones stole a look at each other. 'Um… Chris stays at P3,' said phoebe. 'Why?' asked penny sounding confused, 'why doesn't he stay here?'

Leo made it quite clear why, 'we don't really like people we don't know that well, 'and trust he added in his mind, 'staying in the manor.'

'People you don't know?' penny said, 'he's your whitelighter; he came from the future to save your son.' Penny couldn't believe what she was hearing and frankly it was starting to piss her off.

'It doesn't change the fact that Chris hasn't been very forthcoming with information and I'm not comfortable having him in my house.'

This seemed to tip penny over the edge and she moved forward with what seemed the intention of getting ready to hit him, it was up to Lincoln to hold her back.

'It's not your house!' she shouted, 'you have no say in what happens in it.'

This outburst caused piper to jump up out of her seat. 'That's enough young lady, you don't talk to your father like that.'

Penny turned her head, as she was still being held back by Lincoln, and with obvious anger and venom in her voice said, 'he's not my father and you're not my mother. You have no say in what I do.'

Piper was shocked how could her own child talk to her like that, what had she and Leo done to provoke such anger in their daughter.

'That's enough Penny,' shouted Chris,' they may have no say but I do.' By now he had risen up from his seat but not relinquished his hold on the twins. 'You may not like them right now but you will show them some respect. Is that clear?' receiving no answer repeated, 'is that clear penny?'

Penny stopped struggling with Lincolns hold on her and looked at Chris before replying, 'yeah it's clear.' And with that Lincoln let go of her.

Prue slowly stood up, surveyed the people around her and turned to face piper. 'Thank you for the offer piper but we'll be fine staying with Chris. We've slept in worse places then a storeroom.'

'Look I don't understand what the problem is,' said Leo, 'you're family; of course you can stay here but Chris...'

Before he could continue Prue jumped in, 'if I were you I'd stop while I could Leo. You're not doing yourself any favors and next time Lincoln won't her back… and neither will I. Chris may not be family to you but he is to us. You might want to remember that before you say or do anything else.'

Phoebe, fully conscious of the stand off between Prue and Leo had a solution, Chris can stay in the attic with Lincoln, will that be ok?'

Breaking eye contact with Leo Prue replied, 'yes, thank you.'

'Ok then,' chirped phoebe, 'lets get this party started.'


End file.
